[Said] Legolas, 'there are one hundred and five [Riders].1 Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.'....

After [Éomer] they rode: a long line of mail-clad men, swift, shining, fell and fair to look upon.

Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed.... The Men that rode them matched them well: tall and long-limbed; their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed under their light helms.... In their hands were tall spears of ash, painted shields were slung at their backs, long swords were at their belts, their burnished skirts of mail hung down upon their knees.

[Many] of the Orcs were using ordinary language. Apparently the members of two or three quite different tribes were present, and they could not understand one another's orc-speech....

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 3, The Uruk-Hai

[Most] of the Northerners broke away and dashed off, over a hundred of them.... The hobbits were left with the Isengarders: a grim dark band, four score at least of large, swart, slant-eyed Orcs with great bows and short broad-bladed swords....

[There] was Grishnákh again, and at his back a couple of score of others like him: long-armed crook-legged Orcs. They had a red eye painted on their shields.

Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak.... His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. 'They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.' He paused and his eyes closed....

'Indeed in this riding north I went without the king's leave, for in my absence his house is left with little guard. But scouts warned me of the orc-host coming down out of the East Wall three nights ago, and among them they reported that some bore the white badges of Saruman. So suspecting what I most fear, a league between Orthanc and the Dark Tower, I led forth my éored, men of my own household; we overtook the Orcs at nightfall two days ago, near to the borders of the Entwood. There we surrounded them, and gave battle yesterday at dawn. Fifteen of my men I lost, and twelve horses alas! For the Orcs were greater in number than we counted on. Others joined them, coming out of the East across the Great River: their trail is plain to see a little north of this spot. And others, too, came out of the forest. Great Orcs, who also bore the White Hand of Isengard: that kind is stronger and more fell than all others.

[The] Riders made a great fire and scattered the ashes of their enemies. So ended the raid, and no news of it came ever back either to Mordor or to Isengard....

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 3, The Uruk-Hai

At last... they came to the eaves of the forest, and... they found the place of the great burning.... Further away, not far from the river... there was a mound.... about it were planted fifteen spears.

Aragorn and his companions searched far and wide about the field of battle.... By nightfall they had discovered no trace of Merry and Pippin.

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 2, The Riders of Rohan

'Much [must be done],' said Gandalf. 'But first send for Éomer. Do I not guess rightly that you hold him prisoner, by the counsel of Gríma...?'

'It is true,' said Théoden. 'He had rebelled against my commands, and threatened death to Gríma in my hall.'2....

'... Wormtongue played dangerously, always seeking to delay you, to prevent your full strength being gathered.... Do you not remember how eagerly he urged that no man should be spared on a wildgoose chase northward, when the immediate peril was westward? He persuaded you to forbid Éomer to pursue the raiding Orcs. If Éomer had not defied [your order], those Orcs would have reached Isengard by now, bearing a great prize. Not indeed that prize which Saruman desires above all else, but at the least two members of my Company.... Dare you think of what they might now be suffering, or what Saruman might now have learned to our destruction?'

1The éored with which Éomer pursued the Orcs... had 120 Riders: Legolas counted 105 when they were far away, and Éomer said that fifteen men had been lost in battle with the Orcs.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: Notes, Note 36

2[The] charge against [Éomer], urged by Gríma, was that the King had in this case forbidden him to take any of the still uncommitted forces of the East-mark from Edoras, which was insufficiently defended; that he knew of the disaster of the Fords of Isen and the death of Théodred before he pursued the Orcs into the remote Wold; and that he had also against general orders allowed strangers to go free, and had even lent them horses.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 5, The Battles of the Fords of Isen: Appendix